Webmaster Articles: Web Accessibility

What is Web Accessibility?

Web accessibility is about providing the most universally clear and appropriate default formats of information to users, backed by alternative formats for users who prefer them.

The less universally clear and appropriate the default formats are, the more need there will be to provide users with alternative. The more universally clear and appropriate the default formats are, the more chance users will have customised browsers to cater for alternative needs.

CAUTION: All accessibility options will rarely simultaneously apply to any individual user. Providing too many inappropriate options can make things unnecessarily complicated, unclear and inaccessible.

W3C WAI WCAG Checklist of Checkpoints

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) are the governing body of web accessibility standards in the US, and are responsible for developing the programming language that the web is written in (HTML). This means that web accessibility is generally limited to the works of W3C.

W3C have a project called Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) which comprehensively outlines recommended practices for web accessibility. W3C's WAI project includes documentation called Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Appended to W3C's WAI WCAG documentation is a Checklist of Checkpoints. This checklist is good for web developers to revise as part of a solid technical foundation to their skills in web accessibility. The W3C WAI WCAG Checklist of Checkpoints can be found at: http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/full-checklist.html.

Table Markup for Inline Content Layouts

Many web development experts recommend not to use tables for layout purposes. The truth is, though, that the alternative options can be even worse.

The World Wide Web Consortium has not yet provided a CSS replacement of table markup for creating inline content layouts, having neither unreasonably fixed widths nor overlapping content under varied browser window widths and text sizes. Page width should be relative, fitting to the browser window, only creating horizontal scrollbars when the browser window is very narrow, allowing easy use by users with narrow browser windows. Horizontal scroll bars should appear at some point to enable users to read content which does not fit within the browser window.

If using tables, ensure that content makes sense when read in the order of the source code, and don't use unreasonably wide fixed page widths.

Access Keys

Access keys are one of W3C's few heavily debated recommendations. The debate is based on the fact that access keys override the default shortcut keys of accessibility devices, and users who most need such shortcut keys would be likely to have their own accessibility devices, catering for websites which don't have access keys. The implementation of access keys on the web is varied, and access key users have to learn a new set of codes for each varied site they use.

The best solution is for W3C to recommend a standard set of access key codes for marking up websites, and for shortcut keys of accessibility devices to be made so as to not clash with access keys. In the mean time, web developers should avoid using access keys.

Webmaster Forums

Webmaster forums can be useful places for web developers to casually share ideas and learn about web accessibility from the experience of their peers.